Forge.Fund

Forge.Fund is the route most hardware founders want. Forge describes it as a suite of startup catalysis services for hardware startups in India, running across the whole life of a venture rather than as a dated cohort, and it is the vertical the grants and investments sit under.

What you get

• Access to Forge's product innovation, compliance and certification labs across its seven industrial innovation centres in Tamil Nadu, for product development, prototyping and testing
• Plug-and-play pilot production space to set up and run pilot-scale manufacturing, assembly and testing
• Forge's own product-management method for reaching product-market fit, framed as defining the right product, building the right product, and building the product right
• Industrial pilot projects and product demo labs that show your product to industry buyers
• Strategic advisory on product acceleration, commercial partnerships, investment, milestones and financial planning
• Grant support for product development, and pilot grants that part-subsidise a pilot for your prospective customer
• Growth grant support and seed investment for commercialisation and scaling
• Introductions to angel and venture investors, with advice on how much to raise and what it costs in dilution
• Extra product-development capacity through Forge's own technical specialists

Who can apply

• Hardware startups in India — Forge says the services are offered to hardware startups only, and its focus is what it calls Phygital, meaning hardware-first and digital-plus
• Its eight domains are defence, industrial, mobility, energy and sustainability, health, climate, production and assistive hardware
• Startups at product, market or growth stage; most of the ones Forge works with are at product stage
• Forge publishes no incorporation requirement, no state restriction and no tie to the host college

How selection works: Forge publishes no criteria, no timeline and no cohort dates for this vertical. It describes the engagements as high-touch and tracked by milestones and metrics, which suggests a conversation rather than a scored round.

How to apply: There is no form. Every button on the Forge.Fund page goes to Forge's general enquiry page, so send an enquiry that says what you are building, what stage it is at and what you need. The published inbox is info@forge-iv.co.